China has launched a nationwide promotion campaign on premarital health check-ups, highlighting the importance of the check-ups for curbing infectious diseases and ensuring the quality of newborns.

Addressing a meeting held in Beijing to give out awards to the winners in a contest of knowledge about premarital health check-ups, Huang Qingyi, director with the organizing committee of the campaign, said that a series of activities including the knowledge contest, promotion week, and other events concerning premarital check-ups were held during the campaign.

Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women's Federation, was present at the meeting.

"People's awareness has been enhanced and some regions have even witnessed a pick up in the premarital check-up rate," Huang said.

Ever since the new regulations on marriage registration were introduced on October 1, 2003, stipulating that premarital physical check-up is no more compulsory, the rate of premarital physical check-ups which become no more compulsory has plummeted nationwide.

Statistics show that the rate of premarital physical check-ups was less than 10 percent nationwide in 2004, and was as low as less than one percent in some places.

So far, local governments in the provinces and municipalities including Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei and Shanghai have made premarital check-up free by incorporating it into their government-backed public health service system.

Chinese experts have called for restoring the practice of compulsory premarital health check-ups to ensure the quality of newborns and the entire population generally.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2006)